688 
*. 
wt. And when I bring in the Welbhh, 
E am nearly induced to exclaim, that Mr. 
Bryant muft have been {peaking of it 
under another name: for, however fur- 
priing it may feem, all thofe little 
words, which he calls particles, are ftill 
“found in’ the language Vales, wi 
found the language of Wales, with 
_ fimilar meanings appropriated to them. 
We have fuch as thefe—Pér, Dor, Dan, 
Dér, Nix, Nédv, Nér, Tin, Tor, Hu, On, 
ET, Uz, Ur, Far, Tér, as epithets 
applied to the Deity, and fome of them 
exclufively fo. With refpe€t to com- 
pound appeijations, the fame ftriking 
coincidence is equally preferved. I thall 
here add but one example ; it being my 
intention, at a future opportunity, to 
beg leave for the infertion of fome farther 
proofs upon this point. 
The ancient name of Hercules, amongtt 
the Phoenicians and other neighbouring 
mations, was OURCHOL, and he was 
delineated under the form of a ferpent, 
the general fvmbol of a revolution or 
a period cf time... CHWWEL (once 
written ‘jya) in Welfh, implies a surz 
er revolution; ARCHWYL, is a /uperior 
zurn or revolution; GORCHWYL, 18 a fu- 
preme or grand revolution; and ¥R 
ORCHWYL, ‘be grand courfe or revolu- 
tion ; alfo, what is more particularly 
going on; concern or employment.— 
Next comes the evelve labours of this fu- 
perior revolution, or ‘le year, being fo 
many particular feafons or the months, 
which had alfo their fymbols, Killing 
or cuiting the many-headed Hydré was 
ene. — Hydré, in Welfh, is the barvef 
feafon, or autumn in general, and alfo 
the name of a particular month! This 
explains the killing of the Hydré, to be 
the reaping of tbe corn, and the heads of 
the corn fo cut off increafed fifty-fold.— 
If T were difpofed to be minute, I think 
the particular grain in which the em- 
blem originated, might even be named; 
for it faid the Eydré was killed or cut off 
4m the lake of Lerna. ‘Lyn ‘Loerenaz, 
means, in Welfh, a fallow lake where 
the ground peeps eut in fall ifleis, beng 
juft fuch a place as is proper to grow 
RICE. 
Since the above explanation was fmg- 
gefted to my mind, by the aid of the 
“Welfh words which accompany it, I 
have confulted Gebelm, and you may 
fuppofe, fir, that I muft have been 
agreeably furprifed to find that learned 
man giving the fame explanation of the 
fubject. 
TS, 
Antiquity, te. of the Welfo Language. 
oriental and other languages to fupport 
[Od 
With refpeét to the antiquity of the 
Welth language, as it is now fpoken, E 
quoted the Laws of Howel, and Geoffrep 
of Monmouib’s Hiftory. 1 might have ad- 
duced many other proofs, fuch as Carad- 
og, of ‘Langarvan, the poets, &c.; but 
I brought the fatter forward purpofely 
to excite the obfervation which your 
correfpondent was pleafed to make; and 
which he-has done without impygning 
the firft of my two authorities; confe- 
quently, my proof of the ftability of the 
Welth language is not invalidated. 
Geoffrey made no lefs than two tranf- 
lations of Tyfilio’s original hiftory zzte 
Welfe, as he fays himfelr at the ‘conclu- 
fion of fome of the copies; and one he 
made from his\ own augmented Latin 
verfion “ in his old age.” We have 
now extant three different hiftories in 
Welfh; ene I judge tc be the original 
of Tyfilio, and the cther two are ac- 
counted’ for by Geoffrey. “There is a 
valuable MS. containing the laws, chro- 
nicle of the Saxons, and Geoffrey’s laft 
verfion, all in Welfh, in the Britifh 
Mufeum (Bid. Coit. Cleop. p. 136. Plut.- 
x1x.-A.) There is in the Welth fchool, 
in London, alfo, a copy in Welih of the 
fame hiftory, collated with five MSS. 
Judged to be as old as the age of 
Geoffrey *. 
There are in the Welfh fchool about 
fixty MSS. of Welth poetry, clofing 
with the fixteenth century ; yet this is 
but an inferior colleétion to feveral others 
in Wales. “There has not, yet been a 
hundredth part of the ancient poetry 
tranflated, in any form ; confequently, a 
ftranger to the language cannot, in the 
leaft, be a judge of its merits. 
The points, which B. has touched 
upon with refpect to Welfh affairs, are 
fo pregnant with matter, that a volume 
of proofs might be formed upon any one 
of them, in-fupport of my premifes; 
therefore, all that is done here muft be 
confidered merely as notices of fome of 
the principal heads which may be en- 
larged upon, occafionally, by your in- 
dulgence. 
: *  T remain, &e. 
Sept. 7. MEIRION. 

* T refer your correfpondent for farther fatif- 
faction, in this and other Welfh matters, to a 
new annual work, Called the Cambrian Regifier, 
the firft volume of which is now publifhing, by 
Williams, in the Strand. | 
Te 
ne et 
“ae 
> 
